Anna Soubry has branded the Daily Telegraph’s decision to label her fellow Tory MPs as “mutineers” for opposing the government bid to enshrine the time and date of Britain’s departure from the EU in law as a “blatant piece of bullying”.

The communities secretary, Sajid Javid, has defended the Labour MP Sarah Champion, who resigned from the frontbench after she said in an article in the Sun that Britain had “a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls”.

Sarah Champion has resigned as shadow equalities minister after a controversial article published in the Sun newspaper in which she wrote: “Britain has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls.”

Anna Soubry has branded the Daily Telegraph’s decision to label her fellow Tory MPs as “mutineers” for opposing the government bid to enshrine the time and date of Britain’s departure from the EU in law as a “blatant piece of bullying”.